C-Forum

I am familiar with stroke drills for a solo boater. I would like to see what other OC2 teams have done with adapting stroke drills to tandem paddling.

Can you narrow down your interest in tandem paddling? While a lot of the skill sets are the same for river tripping and easy whitewater runs, it gets different when you want to look at class 4+ boating and slalom racing.

slalom c-2

Paul Mason tandem paddling stuff

These are starting points. Have fun with what you learn.

We are working toward good Class III whitewater, even thinking about working with slalom gates.

The demo is solo, but I use the skills test (first vid) and flatwater slalom(second vid) for tandem coaching as well
https://vimeo.com/58035035
https://vimeo.com/57709037

You might want to take a look at the carving drills as well, but not everyting will apply to a tandem team:
https://vimeo.com/58432476

I really love these drills, they're good fun and really improve your paddling skills. If you want to add some pressure, try to time your runs and beat your previous time, or try with as few strokes as possible, go slow and focus on good technique on every stroke. Plenty of variations to think of.

As a tandem team:
- bow paddler does the turning, stern gives power
- stern paddler does the turning, bow gives power
- both turn (just for the sake of trying, not really a recomendation here)
- after that, try to find the sweet spot when to switch driving/turning forces -> you'll probably need different strategies, given the different natures of the turns.

Enjoy!

I just saw this link with Paul's latest comic. Says basic but basic is always good...

http://algonquinoutfitters.com/bubble-s ... aul-mason/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not drills, but a good demonstration of tandem skills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdZlq1DUDXs

Just put a long, wide pad in the middle of the canoe, get in that close-cockpit relationship, and use the same stroke/drill routines you would on land. Moonlight is best.